Among the many discussions to which the subject of madder has given rise among chemists, there is none which is calculated to excite so much interest as that concerning the state in which the colouring matter originally exists in this root, and there is no part of this extensive subject which is at the same time involved in such obscurity. It is a well-known fact that the madder root is not well adapted for the purposes of dyeing until it has attained a growth of from eighteen months to three years, and that after being gathered and dried it gradually improves for several years, after which it again deteriorates. During the time when left to itself, especially if in a state of powder, it increases in weight and bulk, in consequence probably of absorption of moisture from the air, and some chemical change is effected, which, though not attended by any striking phenomena, is sufficiently well indicated by its results. There are few chemical investigations that have thrown any light on the nature of the process which takes place during this lapse of time, and in fact most of the attempts to do so have merely consisted of arguments based on analogy. It has been surmised that the process is one of oxidation, and that the access of atmospheric air is consequently necessary. We are indeed acquainted with cases, in which substances of well-defined character and perfectly colourless, as for instance orcine and hematoxyline, are converted by the action of oxygen, or oxygen and alkalies combined, into true colouring matters. A more general supposition is, that the process is one of fermentation, attended perhaps by oxidation, and in confirmation of this view the formation of indigo-blue from a colourless plant, by a process which has all the characters of one of fermentation, may be adduced. What the substance is however on which this process of oxidation or fermentation takes effect, what the products are which are formed by it, whether indeed the change is completed as soon as the madder has reached the point when it is best adapted for dyeing, or whether further changes take place when it is mixed with water and the temperature raised during the process of dyeing, are questions which have never been satisfactorily answered, if answered at all. It has indeed been suspected by several chemists, that there exists originally some substance in madder, which by the action of fermentation or oxidation is decomposed and gives rise by its decomposition to the various substances endowed either with a red or yellow colour, which have been discovered during the chemical investigations of this root. That several of these substances are merely mixtures, and some of them in the main identical, has been satisfactorily proved by late investigators. But there still remain a number, which, though extremely similar, have properties sufficiently marked to entitle them to be considered as distinct. In my papers on the colouring matters of madder, I have described four substances derived from madder, only one of which is a true colouring matter, but all of them capable, under certain circumstances, as for instance in combination with alkalies, of developing red or purple colours of various intensity. To seek for a common origin for these various bodies so similar to one another and yet distinct, is very natural, and the discovery of it no improbable achievement.
The many blessings of abstraction: A commentary on Ambridge (2020)
